Personal Finance Classes

The U.S. has a capitalist-oriented economy. We are so successful that we are the market leader in finance (or co-leaders with London). However, Personal Finance is not taught in grade schools on a regular basis. This fact is amazing. One of the most important life skills is managing money. In your life, you will very likely get credit cards, auto loans, college loans, home mortgages, life insurance, and investment vehicles. Why aren’t we taught about the cost of borrowing, the time value of money, or how to balance a checkbook? Personal finance is more important than that Art or Social Studies class in terms of overall effect on your life. If you can imagine the U.S. full of money-savvy individuals, then maybe the “right” interest rate on credit cards would be within a few percentage points of a home equity line of credit (~5.5%) or an auto loan (~7%), not 18%. Credit cards really are ultra, short-term loans that should be paid back in 30 days. It is meant for emergencies, not food and clothing. If you bought those denim jeans on sale at 30% off, and don’t pay that off immediately, you really didn’t get that great deal on jeans that you thought.

How do you want to empower yourself? Luckily, finding information is really easy. Surf to the Internet (finance.yahoo.com, about.com, wikipedia.com), visit the personal finance section in a bookstore or library, ask financially-savvy family or friends, subscribe to a magazine (Money, Kiplingers, etc), or take a community college class. The good thing is the information is out there, and there are people willing to help you learn.
It’s heartening to hear about a school that’s headed in the right direction.

ABCs? Chicago Students Learn  NYSE

http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/abcs-chicago-students-learn-nyse/20080309160309990001

Tags: school, personal finance, life skill, chicago, ariel, nyse, learning